58

Trees began to green, flowers started blooming, and fruit were a few months from falling off their trees. Birds sang, crickets chirped, and the sun peaked past those grey clouds more often than not.

May was a beautiful month; Hogwarts looked its best at the height of spring.

And while the weather was getting better by the day, the sun practically calling for us to lay in it and enjoy, the ever-piling mountain of assignments, readings, and revision kept us all from doing so.

That and Dumbledore's death, for me. Something I still hadn't planned thoroughly enough — failing twice tended to make you more paranoid when it came to the third time.

At least, with all the school work, it was hardly suspicious to be spending every free minute I had in the library; even took whatever book I was reading that day to breakfast, lunch, and dinner, trying to figure out what was wrong with his hand.

So, the sight of me hunched over the lunch table with a book in one hand and my fork in the other wasn't an unusual sight. Theo seemed used to it by now, didn't even question it anymore as he simply carried our conversation as if I wasn't otherwise occupied— it's how he usually dealt with Pansy's absence.

"—And I was thinking, how on earth do you make a girl like that happy? She's got everything it seems; money, loving parents— that's uncharted territory for me, you know—" As he leaned forward in his seat, hand propped on the wooden table, he continued with a hint of amusement in his voice. "The girl's I'm usually dating always... have some deeper rooted issues, right? You remember—"

At the mention of it, my eyes darted up to him, swallowing the bite of food with a humoured snort. My fork still in my hand, I pointed it at him.

"Oh, trust me, I remember—" I huffed, brows raised in amusement. "Who could ever forget Estelle Cartier."

With the back of my hand against my forehead, I faked a swoon, sighing deeply at the same time before I send him a humoured smile. "You certainly never stopped talking about her— a blessing in disguise when the Beauxbaton students went back to France."

With a laugh, Theo leaned over the table to hit my head lightly, ruffling through my hair afterwards to annoy me further.

"It's not like I go looking for the ones with issues—" He justified. "They usually find me all by themselves." Leaning back in his seat, he sighed loudly. "And just when I get used to dealing with it, she's the complete opposite—" Frustration suddenly laced his words, and his head shook as his gaze fell behind me absentmindedly.

"Who's this about?"

There was a pause in which my eyes flickered back onto the pages, waiting for a reply from the boy.

"Katie Bell—"

The name had my gaze snap onto him as the book in my hand closed with a quiet thud.

"You're with a girl who's supposedly been lying unconscious in St. Mungo's for the past six months?" My tone was laced in confusion, drowning in it almost, while my own words sounded like nothing but riddles to myself.

"No, silly—" He shook his head with an eye roll, nodding behind me as a snicker escaped his lips. "Katie Bell is back."

My entire body jerked around in a forceful motion to follow his gaze, indeed falling on the brunette seventh year— her skin still a little pale and her expression ghastly-like. Though, without a doubt, it was her.

My eyes followed her as she walked down the row of tables with a friend by her side. I wasn't surprised to see Potter with her not a few seconds later.

My head shook at his gesture, baffled by the disrespect when he didn't give the girl even a minute to sit down— like a vulture that had been waiting for his prey for far too long.

Making sure their conversation was still ongoing, my eyes roamed the great hall, wondering if anyone else had caught Bell's comeback and whether they were just as interested as Potter and I were.

Weasley sat a few feet behind Potter, trying to listen in on the conversation while still remaining seated. Granger was nowhere to be seen.

As my eyes continued to roam, they fell on a far more interesting sight, and my lips quirked upwards in utter amusement at the sight of Malfoy. I watched his face fall from a frown into one of complete horror in the span of seconds, and his eyes flickered back and forth between Potter and the girl.

Katie Bell being back meant nothing but trouble for Malfoy. And I assumed that to be the reason why he had just turned on his heels and was now storming back out of the hall without a second thought.

The sight was almost laughable, and after I watched Potter storm after the blond, I couldn't help but follow his initial response; told myself it was to see what Potter would say to him, to tease the blond about it later on.

Whether that was the reason or not was a different topic altogether, and, so, watching Potter round the corner after him in a hurry, I shot upwards as well, hurrying over the bench I was sat on to follow them.

I lost a few seconds in trying to briefly explain to Theo where I was going and why, and after telling him I was on my period — which I wasn't — he didn't feel like asking any further questions as his gaze lowered quickly.

My pace was tamed on my way out of the great hall. Quick, but unsuspiciously so. And I was lucky enough to catch glimpses of Potter as he rounded corner after corner, hurried up staircases and ran along corridors in an attempt to catch up with Malfoy.

I was out of breath when I arrived on the sixth floor, spinning around my own axis multiple times in hopes I had missed either of the boy's frames in the empty corridor. I didn't, and as I leaned against the stone wall behind me, my chest heaving and my breaths uneven, I tried to catch my breath quickly.

I was well on my way to do so, the burning in my lungs subsiding, as a loud noise — a sort of shattering glass — made my breath hitch once again. My eyes flickered through the empty corridor, similar sounds echoing through it.

My senses fully heightened, I tried to pinpoint where they might be coming from, and as I continued to wander down the hall with quiet steps, rounding another corner, the water flowing out of the boy's bathroom into the hallway caught my attention.

I stopped in my tracks, brows furrowing as I eyed the sight curiously. My wand was in my hand not a moment later, and as an equally loud noise came from inside of the bathroom — this time sounding as if a heavy object fell into water that must've been ankle-high behind that door — I pulled it open without a second thought.

The sight immediately knocked the winds out of my lungs, my breath hitching in a gasp as my wand fell out of my hand.

Water covered the entire floor, the sound of it still running out of the broken sink in the background filled the otherwise silent room. As soon as I saw Malfoy, I heard him, too.

Cowering in a puddle of his own blood, his white shirt stained as the rest tinted the water he laid in crimson colour. His body was twitching, whimpers and strangled breaths escaping his lips in an uneven manner.

And I was by his side in a matter of seconds, only noticing Potter standing beside him, a horrified expression that was laced in utter disbelief on his face, when I was there. It didn't take long for me to make the connection.

So, as I pulled my blouse over my head in one swift motion, not losing a thought as I pressed it against his body, desperately trying to stop the continuous bleeding as best as I could, my eyes weren't on him. They were on Potter, unbothered that I sat before him with nothing but my bra covering the top part of my body.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" My sharp tone echoed through the bathroom, threateningly loud as they made Potter jump. His eyes diverted from Malfoy's body, falling onto me with wide eyes, tears threatening to spill from them.

"He—" The brunette began, his hand shaking as he pointed at Malfoy on the floor. "He— He cursed her— He—" Unable to form a proper sentence, I scoffed. My attention flickered back and forth between Malfoy and Potter, unsure who to focus on.

"Bloody hell, Potter—" My voice wavered, cracked slightly, and I cleared my throat. "For being the chosen one, you're really fucking daft, aren't you?"

His expression remained puzzled, and the realisation that he had absolutely no idea what I was talking about only aggravated me further. "Fuck— Do you really think a sixteen-year-old makes that decision for himself? Do you think this is something we— he enjoys doing? Running around almost killing innocent people?"

My voice turned from a sharp hiss into something much louder, trying to remain calm for no longer than a few seconds before my loud voice was probably still heard outside of the bathroom.

And Potter was quiet, blinking rapidly without taking his eyes off of me. Once more, I scoffed, shaking my head as I turned my back towards him and focused on the bleeding boy beside me again. "If you really think so, you're dumber than you look."

My entire shirt had turned a similar shade to Malfoy's— a crimson colour, with not a shade of white in sight.

"I—" I meant to ignore Potter's pathetic try at a response, and the task was made a lot easier as the door slammed open with a loud thud, Snape standing in it without a word of warning beforehand.

He kneeled beside me within seconds, ushering me away as soon as he did before beginning to chant an intricate-sounding incantation, the tip of his wand flushed with Malfoy's chest.

And as I stood beside Potter, watching the flow of blood out of Malfoy's body ease before the red-tinted water cleared and the blood retrieved back into his body, I was suddenly painfully aware of my bare torso. My arms crossed in front of my chest, though it didn't help my feeling incredibly vulnerable.

Without ever taking his eyes off Malfoy, Snape addressed the boy beside me. "Stay, Mister Potter," the Professor said, his voice still incredibly monotone despite the situation he had found himself in. "I will tend to you when I get back."

As he lifted the blond into a standing position to get him to the hospital wing, he threw the both of us a glance over his shoulder, scanning our figures only for a moment. "I advise you not to move an inch, Potter." His words only seemed to reinforce his previous instruction before he said, "And for the love of God, offer Miss Hayes your robe."

Gone. 

A/N: This is one of my favs partially because the Sectumsempra scenes are always iconic in every fic so I hope I made it justice in a way (and also I love the scene-setting with Theo in the beginning lol) 

Predictions for the following chapters? hehe

See you tomorrow. <3